


Culture and Corruption

by thegirlwiththemouseyhair



Category: Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-08-23 21:04:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16626419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegirlwiththemouseyhair/pseuds/thegirlwiththemouseyhair
Summary: This treat wouldn’t quite cooperate and lead to interaction between Adam and Dorian; it insisted on ‘two ships passing in the night’ instead of ‘hanging out in the opium den’. I hope you enjoyed it anyway. Also, it feels strange not to have Adam use the word ‘zombies’ as a pejorative for humans, but the term had not yet acquired its current meaning in the nineteenth century.





	Culture and Corruption

**Author's Note:**

  * For [asuralucier](https://archiveofourown.org/users/asuralucier/gifts).



Adam was cursing whatever impulse had brought him here. He’d visited hellish places before, but those did not sell themselves as havens for dreamers - for poets, musicians, and the like. The very air sickened him, hot and close as it was. Humans chattered like apes in drunk dreams. They seemed hardly more than apes. Perhaps they were less.

Of course, Adam knew what it was to be driven by mad hungers. The thought of having anything in common with these animals did not flatter him. But there was nothing for him here. This hell would feed neither his appetite nor his imagination. It could only poison him.

He rose, disgusted, and banged the crooked door open in his haste to leave. Then he checked his pace. On the threshold stood a young man, fair-haired, and flanked by a boy and a girl. Whores, naturally. Their coarseness beside that fine youth could mean nothing else. As to the dandy himself, he’d tried to hide his breeding beneath worn clothes and a shabby scarf. They did little to disguise him from Adam’s keen eyes.

Adam looked him over. He was arrestingly handsome, all golden hair and sharp, perfect bones. More striking still was his presence, his scent, perhaps. For a moment Adam almost thought they were of the same kind. They couldn't be, though. There was something festering at this man’s core - something that would have poisoned Adam or one like him long ago. It both repelled and interested him.

Their eyes met, blue staring into brown. Then the female prostitute gave a harsh laugh, and reached for the gentleman’s coat. He turned to her, stepping out of Adam’s way. Adam left, with only a brief backward glance at the filthy den and the shining young man who was intent upon it.

**Author's Note:**

> This treat wouldn’t quite cooperate and lead to interaction between Adam and Dorian; it insisted on ‘two ships passing in the night’ instead of ‘hanging out in the opium den’. I hope you enjoyed it anyway. Also, it feels strange not to have Adam use the word ‘zombies’ as a pejorative for humans, but the term had not yet acquired its current meaning in the nineteenth century.


End file.
